All the Iraqi money spent on shoddy repairs to Iraqi schools by Halliburton, all the candy bars given away by the "coalition", all the nice words from folks who aren't eager to head off to Abu Ghraib, all the propaganda from Rumsfeld's DoD, doesn't change the reality.

The situation is a disaster, a civil war waiting to happen, a waste of US money and lives, a quagmire from which we can't get out and must continue to waste once-good money and very, very valuable lives.

And if it makes you feel better, powerful, virtuous, charitable, send a few Teddy Bears to an Iraqi hospital.

Although it might have been more virtuous to have been a bit careful with the rockets, bullets and bombs in the first place.

Arf (And wherever the Americans have gone in Iraq, the Americans aren't liked.)